Coffee Talk
by ffreaderwriter
Summary: Continuation of Juror # 6. Pam invited Parker to coffee sometime. She invited Sofie to go along. You will have to see what happened next


"So, do you want to go and have coffee with me?"

Sofie looked up at the blonde standing in front of her. Parker had an unusual smile on her face, which caused the brunette to worry. Parker definitely had an insane streak in her and normally kept to herself so, the invitation to join her for something as mundane as 'coffee' worried her slightly. But, everyone _had_ gone to see her play and they _had_ been working on Parker's social skills lately. Sofie thought to herself. This can't be that bad. Could it?

"Sure, why not?" she responded as she put down the paper she had been reading.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm not sure exactly." Parker smiled even bigger as she turned to walk away to get her jacket. "It's a place that Pam says is really good."

"Pam?" Sofie questioned momentarily confused as she got up to get her coat as well.

"You know, the lady from the jury. The one that said I was nice. She actually thought I was nice." Sofie saw a look on Parker's face when she said that which she couldn't quite describe. It was surprise and possibly pride.

"Ah, yes. Pam" Sofie said to herself remembering the woman. "You are nice, Parker."

Parker spun around on her heels and Sofie thought she was almost bouncing as they left the apartment as Sofie thought to herself, _This is going to be interesting._

The cab pulled up to the curb in a section of town where strip malls bordering urban office buildings began to give way to the suburbs. A short walk brought them into a street in the midst of urban renewal. Hip walk-up studio apartments rubbed shoulders with long standing family-owned businesses that, rather than defying the neighborhood's gentrification, had merged to provide a genial, comfortable atmosphere. Parker stopped in front of a red brick building with a large glass window trough which several diners could be seen enjoying their meals. In the middle of the window black letters spelling out 'The Blue Plate' were displayed across, appropriately enough, a painting of a large blue plate.

A young, attractive dark headed man exited the restaurant as Parker and Sofie approached. He held the door open for them with one hand while holding his coffee in the other. Sofie noticed the guy checking her out as they walked past and Parker rolling her eyes at her.

"You are so predictable." Parker said.

"What?" Sofie asked in an innocent tone.

"Never mind" Parker said changing the subject. "Have you ever been here before?"

Sofie turned away from her admirer and answered in her smooth British accent. "No, can't say that I have."

As she looked around the place she had to say that it did have a homey feel to it. "Pale olive-green walls served as background for an extensive collection of antique advertising signs and framed photos of posed groups, children's sports teams and babies being held by adoring adults. Sturdy dark wood tables set with white paper placemats, and the clean white painted trim around every window and door gave the place a tidy, fresh look.

After surveying their surroundings for a moment, they saw Pam waving them over in her direction. Pam was just the way she remembered her from the courtroom - completely normal Sofie let Parker take the lead in heading towards the table.

"Hi." Pam said to Parker as she reached the table. "Take a seat. I hope you don't mind. I went ahead and ordered for myself. I am just famished for some reason this morning. I have a menu here for you."

"Oh, um that's okay." Parker said, unsure how exactly to respond. Parker sat down next to Pam at the table while Sofie sat directly across the table from her.

Pam smiled at Parker waiting for her to introduce her friend. Parker just sat there while Sofie smiled back at Pam then gave Parker a look.

Parker looked like she was a deer in headlights. "Oh, Oh sorry." Parker gave a little smile. "Haven't had my coffee yet this morning. This is my friend… Sally" Parker looked over at Sofie to see if she was okay with her moniker. Sofie smiled as she extended her hand to shake Pam's. "She's visiting from out of town."

"So, how did you bring with you, Alice?" Pam asked looking between Parker and Sofie.

"Oh, really where are you from?" Pam said. "I'm a home town girl so I love to hear about people from other places."

Parker quickly said "New York" at the same time that Sofie said "London."

Parker glared at Sofie while Pam looked between the two ladies.

"I'm from London by way of New York" Sofie clarified. "I was born in London, as you can surely tell by my accent." Sofie smiled almost nervously. "After school I came to the States and currently live in New York."

"I love your accent." Pam said. "I always love to listen to people with British accents."

"Well, thank you." Sofie said.

"So, have either of you ever been here before?" Pam look between Parker and Sofie and saw them both shaking their heads. "Well, then I will have to let you know about the little slice of heaven that you are sitting in now. You see that picture over there of the baseball team with blue hats on them."

Sofie and Parker followed her line of site and saw the particular picture she was pointing to. "See the coach." Both women shook their heads. "That's Paulie. If you look on the bottom rows of kids the second one over is my son Jacob and the third is Paulie's son Chris. The whole team came here to eat after the team won the championship and this has become my favorite place to come ever since. It is out of the way of my normal route so I have to make it a special point to come here. Between baseball, ballet and work it just doesn't work out. I try to come here regularly. The main word there is _try_."

Parker saw that Pam already had a cup of coffee had gone through a pretty good bit of it. "Is that real coffee? You seem a little hyper."

Sofie gave Parker a look trying to tell her that wasn't nice but Parker just looked back at her oblivious.

Pam saw the exchange. "It's okay." Pam said as she waved towards Sofie basically brushing away the comment. "I'm just a little nervous and when I get nervous I tend to talk fast and ramble."

"Why are you nervous?" Parker asked suprised.

Pam took a breath before continuing. "It's just that I don't have that many girl-friends that I can go and have coffee with. Between my job and my three kids I just don't have a lot of time. I love my kids, don't get me wrong. But, there comes a time when you want to have a conversation with someone over two feet high that doesn't involve poo, cartoon characters, or someone's misplaced items." She turned and focused on Parker. "You seemed so nice and together. I just didn't want to ruin today and come off like some sort of raving lunatic." Pam smiled at the two of them as she finished her speech.

Parker couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Enough about me." Pam said her cheeks slightly reddening. "What are you two thinking about ordering?"

"I don't know. What's good here?" Sofie asked.

"Well, I got the garden omelet along with some french toast." Pam said. "The garden omelet for the nutritionist side of me and the french toast just because I wanted some.

But, everything they have here is wonderful. They have blueberry pancakes that are out of this world here. They come with fresh blueberry syrup. Their waffles are just divine."

"So, do I even need to look at the menu?" Sofie asked.

"Well, there are more things listed there that I haven't said anything about. I haven't made it all the way done it yet." Pam said. "That's why I am trying the french toast today. You may see something there that I haven't thought of yet."

Sofie opened her menu and began to look over it as the waitress approached the table.

"Are you ready to order now?" the young waitress asked as she stopped at their table.

After she had left with everyone's orders Pam looked over at Sofie. "So, Sally what do you do for a living?"

"I'm in Acquisitions." Sofie answered with a completely straight face.

Parker on the other hand nearly choked on her orange juice at hearing Sofie's reply. She began to cough slightly. Parker saw Sofie flash another look her way.

Pam turned and looked at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

After a moment Parker got her breathing back to normal. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just went down the wrong way."

Pam continued to examine her for a few more moments. "So, what exactly do you do, then?"

"I work with Bloomingdale's. I'm one of their buyers." Sofie answered.

"Oh, that sounds interesting." Pam said. "You get to shop for a living?"

"Yes" Sofie answered her accent seeming to get thicker. Parker could tell she was going into a con mode. "I get to go to places all over the world and meet with designers and manufactures to bring the best merchandise back to the consumer."

"That certainly explains your outfit." Pam said, then looked horrified at the fact that she had said that out loud.

Parker started laughing at the situation.

"Oh, that didn't come out right." Pam said as her face went into a full blush. "I meant to say that would explain the wonderful outfit you have on. It really is beautiful."

Parker nearly snorted with delight.

Luckily, Pam was saved from having to say anything else by the food arriving.


End file.
